Windows 8 Beta Consumer Preview

[swarfendor437 14]

Well what can I say - I have decided not to download either the Dev or Public Preview - just the first few seconds of Totalostoday blog video put me off - even Gnome3 with Unity is looking better than Windows8 so was surprised at Totalostodays comments about Ubuntu not being as good as 8! Who want to use a Windows phone interface on the desktop? Are we all of a sudden going to spend over £1K on an All-in-one PC with a touch screen? I'd rather have Zorin or Comice (the former does support touch-screen!).

[Emmie92 10]

Be sure to run live before installing, and if running 7, be sure to create a Repair Disc/Reinstall media/Backup Data - then follow the Instructions here (after live test and backup):

 

http://www.zoringroup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1658

 

Video here:

 

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v283328437Pyp3Byy

 

Cheers! I have an image of Windows 7 and a repair disk (as this will be needed in this case). I will probably dual boot for now.

[AlexAtkin 10]

I have an all in one PC with a touch screen, running Mandriva Linux.

 

Still have Windows 7 on there for when I need it, which does everything I need a touch screen enabled OS to do.

 

I have Windows 8 Consumer Preview on my convertible touchscreen laptop though. Not at all convinced Metro is worthwhile. If I wanted a full tablet I would get an iPad 3 or something Android based, I can't see Windows 8 being able to compete.

 

The ONLY benefit of Windows on a tablet would be if it was an x86 based tablet so could still run desktop apps, which will continue to suck on a touch screen based device as you cannot retro-fit a touch interface onto applications designed to work optimal with a keyboard and mouse. So the only benefit would be the option to dock it and use as a normal Windows PC, I just can't see that being a killer feature for very many people really.

 

Besides, seeing as Windows 8 will also comes in a tablet-only ARM version I suspect most tablets will be ARM based, as they are today, so Windows 8 will have NO benefits there at all as you can only run Metro based apps (apart from Office, apparently) on that version. So you might as well be running an OS optimised specifically for ARM that already has a strong user base and thousands of apps already tried and tested, which brings us back to iOS or Android.

 

Seriously, why would you choose a new platform when there is already two platforms out there with a healthy selections of apps? If want widgets you pick Android, if you want to keep it simple you pick iPad. What exactly does Windows have to offer? Xbox Live is all I can think of and as tablets are NOT optimal gaming devices that is pretty uninteresting IMO.

 

Its a bit of a shame actually, because there are supposed to be lots of improvements in Windows 8 to its power management, the new task manager and copy dialogues which are MUCH improved over Windows 7, but those things aren't enough to warranty upgrading. They will make Windows 8 a better OS on a new PC, except if it keeps going the way it seems to be - nobody will want it. You can't get rid of the Start menu and expect people to just get used to it. People were ****** when the Start menu changed in Vista and that was relatively minor compared to removing it entirely (the button isn't even there on the Consumer Preview) and slapping Metro in its place.

Edited March 7, 2012 by AlexAtkin

[swarfendor437 14]

I must admit I still have a fondness for Mandriva - when every other distribution was touting KDE4 it stayed with the very stable KDE3 and everything working out of the box. I do hope it is not on its last legs - read somewhere that a company is prepared to pump money into it but Mandriva's existing promoter is objecting - how crazy is that?

 

Going back to the comment on lack of a 'button/start menu' I am sure I read somewhere of Ubuntu or buntu based distro not having a power off button on the Gnome Panel!

[AlexAtkin 10]

I'm sticking with Mandriva until the bitter end but I have to admit it doesn't look good.

 

They did make the switch to KDE4 and right jolly mess they made of it (though to be fair, I think it was just that KDE4 still wasn't ready). The latest version finally fixed all that, but they made some changes to KDE that while awesome make it problematic to switch to any other distro without losing functionality.

 

They made the task bar work like on Windows 7 so that application links you put on there double as the task bar, so you just get the icon once. That is probably the single most useful thing Windows has contributed in some time so I don't really want to lose it.

[swarfendor437 14]

By that do you mean where you hover over the app icon in the tray and it gives you the option of one command icon (close all windows etc)/choose which window of the app you want to look at? Zorin has that on it's Win7 desktop if I am on the right wavelength that is.

 

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v283003312skzXwEA - 2 mins 20+seconds in

Edited March 8, 2012 by swarfendor43

[Trickle 10]

Time to post my initial reaction using it on a home desktop. In an nutshell its Windows 7 with the start menu removed. You can still get access to most of the start menu system bits (control panel, run, disk management, device manager etc) by right clicking on the (annoyingly) slightly more difficult to hit bottom right corner metro pop up/clicky thing.

 

By the time I'd found that out I'd already tried installing a 3rd party start button app [the Stardock one, which is a bit naff tbh]. People will 'fix' this. We will be able to get our start menu back if we want. Its not a major problem.

 

I had the old Windows-doesnt-find-your-CDdrive-in-explorer issue even though you'd just installed the dam thing off the same drive. There is already a command line fix for this on the MS forums. In fact I'm certain I last ran into this on the W7 release candidate.

 

But this type of thing suggests to me we might have to be careful suggesting the 'free' W8 Consumer-preview to friends/collegues building PCs over the next 9 months who dont have an operating system. I still need to install Steam and try a few games to get a better belleather for compatibility, but so far its installed a few WinXP era apps OK. I'm not really expecting any different level of compatibility than with W7.

 

 

Edit: I take it back about the Stardock start menu. I'm starting to think that using W8 as a desktop without a 3rd party start menu app will prove effectively impossible for most people.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Trickle

[Trickle 10]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5630/indepth-with-the-windows-8-consumer-preview/19

 

If you’re reading this, the chances are good that you’re a technology enthusiast with a decent system, and you’re the ones to whom Windows 8’s under-the-hood enhancements will appeal the most. Give the preview a test drive, evaluate whether you’ll use the new features, and give Metro a fair shake—like it or not, it’s the future of the platform, and it’s well-implemented here. If you’re happy with Windows 7, though, this isn’t the must-have upgrade that its predecessor was, and Microsoft’s long-term support cycle—mainstream support until 2015, extended support until 2020—means that you’ll still get significant software updates (new DirectX and IE versions and a handful of other backported features) for awhile and security updates for even longer. You’ve got time to wait for Windows 9.

[Ghozer 112]

I can't even get it running.... i get a winload.exe error when I try and boot the dvd...

[swarfendor437 14]

Seen as I have lots of bandwidth left this month I will download and install Zorin on my laptop ... better be good!

 

Are you sorted yet Emmie92?

[ezzablade 10]

im sticking with windows 7 for now

[anywebsite 10]

I tried the earlier developer preview.

 

I think you can turn the metro interface off, it's horrible to use with a mouse, designed for touch screens. I'm sure I read that you can get the 'classic' interface back now.

 

Apart from that it's not as bad as earlier Windows versions, or it wont be in the final release. IE10 is catching up with other web browsers, supports a lot of new technology & it should make my life easier.

 

You don't want to be installing preview releases unless you think messing up your PC is a fun night in.

Edited March 15, 2012 by anywebsite